INDUSTRY REPORT Understanding Asia Pacific’s Industry on Social Media Content

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Understanding Consumer Behavior on Social

4. Industry Trends on Social

5. Key Takeaways

www.digimind.com 2 Introduction

The rising affluence of consumers in Asia Pacific has created a Color Me Social thriving, yet incredibly discerning and brand conscious market for colour cosmetics. Makeup has evolved from a luxury to a With Internet penetration at 48% in Asia Pacific (Digital in necessity for most women in professional and social settings. 2018), Internauts are highly connected to information about beauty trends and products around the world. Social media At the same time, an increasing demand for diversity and networks like Facebook, , and YouTube, are popular representation of individual needs coupled with an increasing platforms for showcasing different makeup looks, inspiring number of homegrown makeup lines, spells stiff competition new trends, and driving publicity and hype for cosmetics for international brands in the region. To create and market brands online. products that are “on point” with mainstream beauty trends, constant innovation and strategic use of digital marketing However, product and branding cycles are also much shorter. channels is critical. Consumers are driven more by the latest fads fuelled by social media, than loyalty to a brand. International brands face the Traditionally, brick and mortar stores existed as primary added pressure of competing against smaller, local players touchpoints between brand and customer, while offline events who seek fame and customers on the same platforms, while like pop-up stores and masterclasses serve to create hype and having the benefit of being able to make business decisions at in turn, increase sales. Today, ecommerce and social channels a faster pace. have developed to enhance the overall experience of discovering, buying, and using cosmetics. How can international cosmetics brands stay relevant and appealing, while creating valuable experiences and conversations via social media channels?

www.digimind.com 3 METHODOLOGY

For this study, we examined key trends in consumer behavior, Cosmetics brands studied in this report have the following discussions, and preferences vis-a-vis color cosmetics, as well attributes: as how brands engage their local online communities in the - Predominantly selling products in the face, eyes, and following countries: lips categories - Sold physically in at least 1 of the countries studied - Not predominantly offering products in the skincare, , brushes, makeup remover, or fragrance category Australia Hong Indonesia Kong Brands studied:

- - Beauty Malaysia Singapore The - - Philippines - Estee Lauder - Nars - Beauty - NYX - - Revlon From 13 January to 6 March 2018, 22 international cosmetics - Makeup - brands were monitored on our social media monitoring - Lancome - platform, Digimind Social, to determine key conversation - Laneige - Sigma Beauty trends around the industry. We also studied the social media - L’Oreal - Too Faced pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube) of these - MAC - brands. Branded social media pages were sourced from the - - YSL Beauty respective brand’s website or through Google search.

(All data collected is based on posts from public accounts in English, Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia, and Tagalog.)

www.digimind.com 4 UNDERSTANDING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ON SOCIAL CHANNELS

www.digimind.com 5 Where and How are Consumers Talking About Cosmetics Brands?

56.7% of public posts and discussions on brands studied % of brand related posts on... were on Instagram, making the photo and video sharing platform a goldmine of consumer insights and user generated content for cosmetics brands in Asia Pacific. The visually centric nature of Instagram makes it ideal for makeup fans to share different looks, reviews, and product hauls.

In contrast, 59.5% of audiences were on Facebook, where major retailers like promoted various brands and products for sale at their physical and ecommerce stores.

Given these trends in consumer discussion and audience distribution, brands could explore: % of brand audience on…

- Establishing an engagement plan for posts on Instagram to engage with brand advocates and nurture brand advocacy and loyalty - Identifying potential influencers to collaborate with via UGC; for such instances, it is important for brands to understand the influencer’s target audience and values to ensure they align with the brand - Monitoring user generated content and customer feedback on social media, to detect current trends and competitor activity - Exploring strategic partnerships with local retailers who could help reach more customers Other channels refer to forums, blogs, videos, and other web sources. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 0.1% www.digimind.com 6 #WhatIBoughtToday - Instagram

Customers who tagged or mentioned brands in their shopping hauls on Instagram, showed the products in their original packaging, along with a personal review. The abundance of product posts highlights two things:

- Shoppers’ excitement at sharing their latest hauls on social media

- The importance of chic packaging and product design in showcasing the fashion forwardness of the brand, as Instagram is largely about crafting and sharing perfect, memorable, and photo worthy moments such as new purchases

www.digimind.com 7 #WhatIBoughtToday - Twitter

Posts about cosmetic purchases on Twitter were more diverse. These spanned: - Customers expressing intent or excitement over buying new products

- Internauts exchanging reviews and opinions of various

makeup lines - Impulse or mood motivated buys

While customers tagged the brand’s handle or used the brand’s hashtag on Instagram as a way to engage with them and gain more views, this was not the case for Twitter, where Internauts were more inclined to express themselves or share their shopping hauls only with their personal network.

Monitoring Twitter discussions can give brands precious insights into:

1. What type of products encourage hype and are preferred by customers, 2. What motivates customers to buy

In an industry defined by competitiveness and flux, it is crucial for brands to keep a pulse on consumer preferences, shopping habits, and beauty fads, so they can meet these demands and position products in a relatable and engaging way on social media.

www.digimind.com 8 A Time to Showcase Makeovers and Inspired Looks

44.4% 4.4% 14.0% 37.3% 3.1%

89.8% 5.1%

9.1% 20% 10.7% 60.1% 2.0%

13.2% 14.6% 6.9% 65.3%

32.4% 8.3% 17.6% 41.7%

9.1% 8.6% 20.3% 62.1%

Festive holidays include Australia Day, Chinese New Year, and Valentine’s Day Milestones include birthdays, graduations, and wedding anniversaries.

In Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and The Philippines, brand related discussions mentioning social occasions, were dominated by wedding related posts. This can be attributed to makeup artists and photo studios who posted portfolio pictures on Facebook and Instagram.

Festive holidays including Australia Day, Chinese New Year, and Valentine’s Day, led in Australia and Hong Kong. In addition to makeup artists, beauty bloggers and influencers also leveraged these occasions to get more views for their festive inspired creations.

www.digimind.com 9 Ensuring Brand Safety: Third Party Cosmetics Sellers on Social

A whopping 64.9% of mentioning makeup brands in Indonesia were by third party cosmetics sellers.

84% of such content in all countries studied was on Instagram. Characteristics of these posts included: - Seller’s WhatsApp number or LINE ID, for customers to contact them to purchase - Use of words like “ready stock” and “trusted seller” to entice customers to buy - Location hashtags like #selangor and #malaysia to increase views from Internauts in the region

It is important for brands to monitor and identify the potential circulation of counterfeit goods or goods sold through unofficial channels, as such activities could have an impact on brand reputation, prestige, and market share.

www.digimind.com 10 User Generated Content (UGC): A Treasure Trove of Content Inspiration for Brands

Top Trending For brands with a regional presence, Most Mentioned Brands understanding the nuances of each Hashtags market when discussing or creating content, is essential to localize #makeupartist, MAC, NYX, , Too marketing strategies. Australia #hudabeauty, Faced #wakeupandmakeup By gathering insights on consumer discussions and behaviors, marketers #haircolour, #olaplex, can detect top trending attributes of Hong Kong Shiseido, YSL #hkgirl, # each market and adapt their content and engagement activities to these trends. #kosmetikmurah, Indonesia Laneige, Shiseido #jualkosmetik

#hudabeauty, Malaysia #trustedseller, Nars, Clinique #hantaran

#sephora, #motd, MAC, Urban Decay, Shiseido, Singapore #sgfriends Fenty Beauty

#wedding, MAC, Make Up For Ever, The Philippines #beforeandafter Maybelline, L'Oréal, Nars

www.digimind.com 11 User Generated Content (UGC): A Treasure Trove of Content Inspiration for Brands

Australian Internauts used a diverse range of hashtags in Indonesia and Malaysia saw a high volume of self their posts, from hashtags of all brands used for their promotional activities by third party sellers, who used makeover look, to local and international makeup hashtags like #trustedseller and #kosmetikmurah communities on Instagram. Given such an active and (meaning “cheap makeup”) to expand post reach. engaged customer base, brands can further develop this online tribe by: To stand above these sellers, brands studied must be more active on social, and use a unique branded hashtag - Interacting with customers more often on social for launches, events, or other campaigns to ensure their media, by commenting on their posts or featuring products don’t get lost within third-party sales posts. them as inspirational content

- Inviting customers who tag them frequently and relevantly to join a membership that grants them discounts, exclusive invites to masterclasses, and sneak previews of upcoming product launches A similar trend was observed in Hong Kong, Singapore, - Collaborating with makeup communities on and The Philippines, where hair salons, makeup artists, online and offline initiatives, such as giveaways and and bridal studios tagged brands like Shiseido. Given the masterclasses complementary nature of these businesses, brands studied can consider collaborating with them for masterclasses or as advocates, and in turn, strengthen their local business network.

www.digimind.com 12 Content and Engagement Tips

With an immense volume of content being posted online around cosmetics brands,marketers must be strategic in their activities:

Content Creation & Influencers & Engagement Branded Hashtags Brand Ambassadors

Create tutorials, style guides, Identify influencers to Focus on genuinely engaging or inspired looks around partner with, based on their with customers who post festive holidays and invite audience reach, relevance of brand related content instead customers to post their own content, organic engagement of using a third party creations using a branded rates, and whether their automation tool; authenticity hashtag. followers coincides with your plays a critical role in showing target audience. your sincerity as a brand, which in turn increases Identify brand ambassadors customer loyalty. who frequently tag your band in their posts and partner with Develop a UGC engagement them for promotional plan to comment on or activities; this can incentivise re-share inspirational posts purchasing while making featuring your brand. customers feel rewarded for advocating your products.

www.digimind.com 13 INDUSTRY TRENDS ON SOCIAL

www.digimind.com 14 Snapchat No More?

In a time of changing post-display algorithms and content % of brands % of brands studied clutter, marketers face increasing challenges in: studied with a with at least 1 local global profile profile on… - Where to focus social media activities on… - How to increase organic post reach and engagement Facebook 86.4% 59.0% - Maximising the ROI of social activities - Understanding consumer’s preferences in a fast-changing industry Twitter 77.3% 22.7%

Instagram 95.5% 40.9% Maybelline’s since deleted tweet calling followers to vote on whether to stay active on Snapchat in view of declining audience reach, called to mind a common dilemma Youtube 81.8% 59.0% amongst regional brands.

The majority of brands studied preferred to consolidate owned social media activities on global pages, with some using post geo-targeting to ensure a level of localisation for their posts.

How are cosmetics marketers using local and regional brand profiles to promote their products and engage their online communities?

www.digimind.com 15 Owned Social Media, a Channel for Launching and Showcasing Products

% of overall % of top engaging Cosmetics marketers in Asia Pacific tend to adopt a sales branded content posts about… centric approach in their social media strategy, with product about... and sales related content dominating branded posts during the period studied (58.8%). Influencers, brand, ambassadors, and 6.4% 11.5%

celebrity tie-ups Based on the three most engaging posts from each brand’s social profile: In-store services 4.4% 2.6%

- Audiences enjoyed discovering information about new Giveaways 5.0% 6.4% and upcoming products via social media. Such content proved to be a good way of creating Engagement 4.5% 7.7% anticipation for upcoming launches, with Events 3.7% 7.7% excitement-inducing words like “counting down”. To track the impact of social media on product launches, Inspirational content 17.3% 11.5% brands could include special promotions such as a free and tips gift or a small discount with a unique discount code. Product launches and 41.4% 43.6% showcases - International celebrities like Gal Gadot and Gigi Hadid, as well as local makeup influencers who were featured Promotional 17.4% 9.0% in tutorials and launch campaigns, piqued the interest

of followers. In-store services refers to free services and makeup consultations offered in-store. Engagement posts include festive greetings, or posts with calls to action for followers. Inspirational content and tips includes makeovers, festive looks, and tutorials. - Inspirational content and tips, such as festive looks Promotional posts refers to posts inviting followers to buy a product or include a link to an e-commerce site. and tutorials, were a topic of interest amongst customers. This highlights a need for brands to create both inspirational and educational content around new products, to build hype and entice followers to purchase without being overly salesy.

www.digimind.com 16 KEY TAKEAWAYS

www.digimind.com 17 KEY TAKEAWAYS

Gone are the days of a one size fits all social media strategy. With regional consumption trends shifting, and an increasingly competitive and diverse market, cosmetics brands have to be all the more adept at localising content and engagement activities, to remain relevant and top of mind among customers so as to drive sales.

Here are some steps brands can take to stand out against the competition, and grow their online communities into loyal customers and advocates:

1. Monitor online discussions about your brand: Instagram and Twitter are treasure troves of insights about your customers’ behavior, opinions and preferences. Brands can leverage these insights to create and position products strategically and to develop content strategies. To understand how these trends evolve in real time, establish a strategy to track and aggregate insights collected from online discussions.

2. Monitor your competitors’ activities on social: Very often, branded activity on social contains clues about upcoming launches and events. By anticipating the next move of their competitors based on these trends, brands can rework their product and marketing strategies and keep one step ahead of them.

3. Focus on creating value added content for customers: When promoting your products, take it one step further by creating value adding content, such as tutorials and looks customers can take inspiration from. Remember to localise your content marketing strategy, so you align yourself with your audience’s interests without getting lost in a sea of content clutter!

4. Work with local beauty influencers and content creators: While celebrities are undeniably powerful for creating hype amongst customers, local influencers and content creators are equally useful for reaching out and engaging with new customers in each market, with their expertise and localised knowledge of their audience’s preferences. www.digimind.com 18 About Digimind

Digimind is the leading social media monitoring and competitive intelligence software, designed for brands and agencies who want to accelerate digital transformation through an insights-driven approach. Recognised by Forrester and Gartner, Digimind’s best-in-breed technology transforms social and online data into actionable business insights, enabling marketers to effectively plan, execute, and analyse their marketing strategy.

Founded in 1998, Digimind is headquartered in New York, Paris, Singapore, and Rabat, serving more than 600 customers worldwide including LinkedIn, Sony, McCann Worldwide, and Lexus.

Learn more at www.digimind.com

Contact us: [email protected]

www.digimind.com 19 AUTHORS.

Digimind Marketing

The Digimind marketers in New York, Singapore, and Paris are specialists in Social Media and Insight Driven Marketing strategies that enable organizations to perform better. They share their best practices as well as customer cases through white papers and ebooks.

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